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Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) was in 36 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. AMGN shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. There were 30 hedge funds in our database with AMGN holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the financial world, there are plenty of metrics shareholders can use to monitor publicly traded companies. Two of the most innovative are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a solid margin (see just how much).

Equally as important, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are a number of motivations for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if shareholders understand what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a look at the key action surrounding Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN).

Hedge fund activity in Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 36 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 20% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, holds the largest position in Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN). D E Shaw has a $289.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.7% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Samuel Isaly of OrbiMed Advisors, with a $220.3 million position; 5.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Sectoral Asset Management, managed by Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom, initiated the most outsized position in Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN). Sectoral Asset Management had 85.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital also initiated a $14.4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Malcolm Fairbairn’s Ascend Capital, and Robert Raiff’s Raiff Partners.

How have insiders been trading Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN)?

Bullish insider trading is most useful when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time period, Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 10 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN). These stocks are Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN), Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALXN), Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB), Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG), and Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD). This group of stocks belong to the biotechnology industry and their market caps are similar to AMGN’s market cap.